Commercial trials reveal the potential of high-ester yeast strains
FROM LAB TO GLASS
Written by BRETT STEIGERWALD and HALEY CHURCHILL
T
he distilling industry is built upon tradition. From product marketing to company ethos, it is interwoven in nearly every aspect of the production process. These historical practices have led to an incredible diversity of production techniques and spirits that speak to cultures and traditions. However, at smaller facilities, these production practices can be difficult to adopt, implement, and successfully control. Given these realities, how does an industry innovate while remaining faithful to its traditions? Over the past 40 years, innovations in yeast and bacteria development have enabled distilleries to experiment to improve efficiencies and produce a wide variety of spirit profiles and organoleptic characteristics in a controlled, predictable fashion that was not thought possible a few decades ago. These innovations have led to the creation of bespoke distilled spirits, allowed for complex blending and finishing programs, and given the consumer diversity within spirit categories. Additionally, these innovations have allowed distilleries to simplify their fermentation process, reduce the variance between batches, and further refine their production practices. However, there are still great impediments facing facilities that wish to explore ancestral techniques, which were utilized to create rich sources of ester precursors (organic acids) for strategic addition to the fermentation to hopefully yield a distillate with desired high ester-y characteristics. Such high ester distillates are then used as intermediate blend components to create diverse flavor profiles. Even for large facilities, this is a labor-intensive process.
W W W . ARTISANSPIRITMAG . C O M
Most recently, the advances in precise and safe genetic engineering have enabled investigators to modify individual yeast strain traits to improve yields, increase the production of desired organoleptic characteristics, lessen/ limit the production of non-desired fermentation products, and much more. (This is covered in detail by Gabe Toth in his Winter 2025 Artisan Spirit article: Genetic Engineering in the Distilling Industry). Read Genetic Engineering in the The Montreal-based company Lallemand Distilling Distilling Industry has recently produced the first high-ester yeast strain (DistilaEdge TC) capable of producing a wide variety of characteristics (overproduction of a variety of acetate esters) from a range of fermentative bases. This will potentially allow facilities to create aromatically intense, organoleptically complex distillates with minimal modification to existing processes, all while offering similar process efficiency. The strain is a bioengineered distilling Saccharomyces cerevisiae that features a single intergenic modification leading to the increased production of acetate esters in alcoholic fermentations. This technique of organism modification is one of many employed by researchers to develop desirable new traits. Unlike traditional strain improvement techniques, such as domestication, yeast hybridization, and mutagenesis, strain engineering offers a precise and targeted approach. In contrast, traditional methods, tend to produce randomized results, rely on time-intensive selection strategies to modify existing traits, and cannot introduce entirely new traits into the organism.
APPLICATIONS
Regardless of size, distilleries face space/location limitations when considering the adoption of novel production techniques. For rum producers, countless facilities are experimenting with cane acid, dunder, and/or muck programs, with variable success. These programs seek to naturally produce high concentrations of acid precursors to enhance fruity notes and complexity in their distillates. These are worthy approaches; however, DistilaEdge TC over-produces fruity esters, in addition to intense floral aromas, in a predictable, controlled manner with significantly less labor. This means that any facility can easily utilize this new strain and produce remarkably complex distillates with little added effort. Labor aside, this new strain enables never-before-seen flexibility pertaining to blending capabilities and the ability to tailor cut points to focus on specific presentation of desired esters or other organoleptic characteristics, depending on the fermentative base. For consumers, it will be an exciting new age where science meets art and redefines the poetry we find in each contemplative glass of good stuff.
R&D TRIALS
In the development of the DistilaEdge TC strain, multiple feedstocks were fermented and evaluated, each with exciting results. R&D Trial 1 was completed on a bourbon mash that included 77 percent corn, 15 percent rye and 8 percent malted barley. 55